Läd̛âng
General information Läd̛âng (pronounced lādʰâŋ) is a language isolate that is spoken almost exclusively on an island 200mi (500km) of the southern most tip of Vietnam. Phonology and orthography Läd̛âng has a fairly complex phonological system, especially for native speakers of English. This is mainly due to the tonal system and nasal vowels, but also because of the distinction between aspirated and non-aspirated consonants. Consonants There are twenty-nine consonants in Läd̛âng. Plosive consonants have aspirated counterparts that are counted as separate letters, as is the digraph "ng". B b : b voiced bilabial plosive B̛ b̛ : bʰ aspirated voiced bilabial plosive C c : x voiceless velar fricative D d : d voiced alveolar plosive D̛ d̛ : dʰ aspirated voiced alveolar plosive H h : ɣ voiced velar fricative G g : g voiced velar plosive G̛ g̛ : gʰ aspirated voiced velar plosive J j : j palatal approximant K k : k voiceless velar plosive K̛ k̛ : kʰ aspirated voiceless velar plosive M m : m bilabial nasal N n : n alveolar nasal NG ng : ŋ nasal velar P p : p voiceless bilabial plosive P̛ p̛ : pʰ aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive R r : ɽ͡r retroflex trill S s : s voiceless alveolar sibilant Š š : ʃ voiceless palato-alveolar fricative Ŝ ŝ : ʂ voiceless retroflex sibilant Ś ś : ɕ voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative T t : t voiceless alveolar plosive T̛ t̛ : tʰ aspirated voiceless alveolar plosive W w : w voiced labio-velar approximant Z z : z voiced alveolar fricative Ž ž : ʒ voiced palato-alveolar fricative Ẑ ẑ : ʐ voiced retroflex sibilant Ź ź : ʑ voiced alveolo-palatal fricative Vowels Läd̛âng is a tonal language, there are eight "base" vowels and five tones. The eight base vowels are: A a : a open front unrounded vowel Æ æ : ə mid-central vowel E e : e close-mid front unrounded vowel I i : i close front unrounded vowel O o : ɔ open-mid back rounded vowel Œ œ : œ open-mid front rounded vowel U u : u close back rounded vowel Y y : y close front rounded vowel Tones and nasal vowels are shown by accents. There are six different diacritics used to show these vowel properties, they are: *Acute : ´''' *Circumflex : '''ˆ *Diaeresis : ¨''' *Grave : '''` *Háček : ˇ''' *Tilde : '''˜ A table of these vowels is shown below: Alphabet There are thirty-six letters in the Läd̛âng alphabet: Basic grammar Läd̛âng is an analytical language with two numbers (singular and plural) and two genders (masculine and feminine). The language lacks grammatical cases and verbs are not conjugated apart from for tense. Masculine nouns end in a'', ''b, b̛, c'', ''d, d̛, e'', ''g, g̛, h'', ''i, k'', ''k̛, ng, p'', ''p̛, r'', ''t or t̛. Feminine nouns end in æ'', ''j, m'', ''n, o'', ''œ, s'', ''š, ŝ'', ''ś, u'', ''w, y'', ''z, ž'', ''ẑ or ź. Category:Languages